Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XXX - H. C. G. Moule

Chapter viii, continued.

Our verse delightfully negatives the thought of grace as a something to be stored up in our own hands on occasions; a limited supply, to be economized and managed, and made to last, till it runs dry, or almost dry, and must be replenished by some new means. Here it flows for us, by us, in us, for evermore; ever passing, ever abiding, "new every morning, failing not,” for the soul which is in contact with the eternal source.

Let us go forth in peace, in the peace which is itself a power, in great peace, while peace most humble, recollecting this truth, into the “changes and chances of this mortal life.” No two days and hours are quite alike; no two hearts and lives. On this we have already dwelt, as we considered* the manifoldness of need. But here is the heavenly antidote to the trials of succession, as we saw it above to the trials of multiplicity. For the succession in us there is this divine succession in our Lord. For the struggles of yesterday He was present with the needed fulness. That fulness is not attenuated by the “out-going” of the “virtue” then; for it comes to us in this unwearying exchange and newness. It is full, in the same channel but a new flood, for the struggles of to-day. And to-morrow it shall be the same.

What is your special need? Is it some great sorrow of loss – loss of strength, of wealth, of affection, of beloved ones who lighted up your life? Is it some great problem of action, duty new and momentous, accumulations of demand upon your narrow hours? Is it the perplexity of wandering thoughts in the hour of hearing God’s Word, or of prayer? Is it some other need altogether internal, defilements in the inmost world of imagination and desire, stirrings of corruption far within? Is it need markedly external, temptation to principle, to patience, coming upon you from without? Is it the agonies of perplexity** about some mystery of the Word and Ways of God? Is it the need implied in a life of toil, or that which comes with leisure, the solemn trust of hours with which you "may do what you will”? Is it pangs of memory, or of anticipation – present griefs, though not caused by the present? Of the pangs of memory, is it one of the worst – recollection of a time when a peace and joy in Jesus Christ were yours which are not yours to-day? Of the pangs of anticipation is it one of the most wearing – expectation of future failure in your life and service for your Lord?

It is need for need, weakness for weakness. Yes, but behold also grace for grace; not for yesterday, but for to-day; and for to-morrow when to-morrow is to-day. Be sure of this, that your Lord and Life will never, no, not for an hour, or for a minute, leave you with an inadequate supply of “Himself working in you, to will and to do” – to begin again, or to go on again, willing and doing – “for His good pleasure’s sake.”

Do not fear the certainty of perpetual needs. Do not fear the fact that the Enemy will attempt you to the last, and that to the last “in your flesh” will “dwell no good thing.” Do not be disheartened by the longest retrospect of failures. Look, and see for this moment the moment’s divine succession of supply in Jesus Christ. And be perfectly sure that neither for this moment nor any other is there “fulness” anywhere else.

* Ch. VII.

** How different are such pains from the unhappy complacency of a mind vain of its doubts, or proud in them! When Asaph (Psal. lxxiii.) was brought to rest, by the simplest looking off to God, he did not say, “How intellectual I am!” but “So foolish was I, and ignorant.” But what a dire conflict it was while it lasted, before he be-thought him of carrying it into “the sanctuary”!